Stereo-typically Speaking...

if Australia = Kangaroos/Koalas, and Africa = Zebras/Giraffes; then China = Pandas. or at least that seems to be the consensus in Japan...

for whatever reason, the souvenir shops in Kobe's Chinatown (Motomachi) had a lot of t-shirts w/ pandas on them. seeing as how i have so much "Chinese Pride", i felt obliged:



(from Kobe: 900yen)

and then again, when i visited Yokohama's Chinatown:



(from Yokohama: 900yen)

and another one from Kobe:



(i think i just got this one b/c it was GREEEEN...)


this next one isn't from any sort of Chinatown, just a shop in Osaka's Namba area that i perused occasionally. it was a bit more expensive, but a lot higher quality than the others (and it was on sale!):







(about 3000yen?)

finally, this last one was another cheapie from this goldmine of a cheapo-clothing store that i found in the Guch. i actually found it by accident...once again due to my curiosity.

Yoshino-sensei (1st year Japanese English Teacher from my first school) took me on a short bike ride during lunch to show me this grocery store close to the school. it was a lot nicer than my beloved Tamade, and had sort of a Save-On-Foods feel to it. she never told me where the mysterious escalator that was on your right when you entered the store led to...but one day after school/work when i was picking up some nikku-jagga i decided to check it out. (if this sounds vaguely familiar, it's because i have a habit of exploring strange, unknown places...)

it was like taking an escalator to (cheapie t-shirt) "heaven".

seriously though, i found so much good stuff there: odd tshirts, pants, shirts, shorts, odd Japanese "work clothes", oh...and tabi socks. tabi socks are the term for the traditional two-toed socks that are unique to Japan. you can buy them at specialty stores pretty much anywhere in Japan, but this store had a smaller selection (probably the less popular designs), but they were cheaper than what other places were selling basically the same thing for. about 290yen a pair vs. 390yen a pair on average. in any case, think of it as like...the Japanese "Zellers" or "Wal-Mart" clothing section. nothing high-end or fancy, but you know what? if you're good at digging (which i am), you're bound to find some hidden treasure...and if you like stores like Winners, then you know that hunting for (and finding) a bargain is just as fun as what you actually get:



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